Cybercriminals are increasingly using legitimate websites to spread malicious payloads, according to a report by cybersecurity experts Egress. The research found that some of the world’s most popular websites, including YouTube, Amazon AWS, Google Docs, Firebase Storage, and DocuSign, are being abused to deliver malware. This technique effectively bypasses standard link checks performed by antivirus and endpoint security solutions, allowing these harmful payloads to reach unsuspecting victims. The report calls on businesses to adapt their defenses to avoid these attacks, such as prioritizing behavior-based email security and deploying natural language processing and understanding to defend against more sophisticated attacks.
Egress is a cybersecurity company that provides comprehensive, end-to-end data security solutions. The company’s integrated cloud email security platform, Egress Defend, was used to gather the data for this report.
Jack Chapman is the VP of Threat Intelligence at Egress. He emphasized the need for enhanced defenses to prevent phishing attacks, stating that every attack analyzed had bypassed other anti-phishing detection methods, including secure email gateways. Chapman advises businesses to prioritize behavior-based email security and deploy AI to mitigate increasing threats evading perimeter security. He also recommends deploying natural language processing and understanding to defend against sophisticated attacks.
Steps:
1. Businesses must prioritize behavior-based email security.
2. Deploy AI to mitigate increasing threats evading signature-based and reputation-based perimeter security.
3. Prioritize natural language processing and understand to defend against sophisticated attacks.
